


masters of disguise

by poppyseedheart



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Grand Theft Auto Setting, Fake AH Crew, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-08
Updated: 2018-05-08
Packaged: 2019-05-03 22:32:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14579031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poppyseedheart/pseuds/poppyseedheart
Summary: A meditation on FAHC Gavin and Ryan and the careful unnamed thing between them.





	masters of disguise

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thegetfxckedcrew (nintendomiya)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nintendomiya/gifts).



> Happy birthday MJ!!! You're such a lovely friend and I'm so grateful to know you. I thought you might like a little Freewood fic as a gift, so here this is! It's quick and unbeta'd but I hope you like it <3

Things pop off three hours into the watch. Until that point, everything had been quiet, and Gavin had even been bored, thinking about how much he was going to complain about being put on security duty again when all he wants is to be sitting passenger seat in someone’s car, firing an assault rifle back out the window and laughing into the night.

He’d been close to just turning in for the night and hoping everything would stay calm, but then Ryan’s car pulls in much, _much_ faster than it usually does, and he hears Ryan jump out, run inside, and yell, “ _Duck!_ ”

Gavin is stubborn, and occasionally makes suspect decisions, but he’s not suicidal. He ducks. Bullets spray overhead, and he hears the screech of tires from whatever vehicle had been pursuing Ryan. He scrambles to the door, throwing himself into the stairwell and reaching for his pistol. He’d had a sniper rifle up on the roof, but like hell he’s going to try to carry that with him. It’ll be a liability in any kind of close quarters.

“Ryan?” he shouts. The risk of being located by someone else pales in comparison to needing to know if Ryan is okay.

Ryan grunts, and it sounds like it’s coming from the safe house’s master bedroom. “Gav, in here.”

Below them, the front door of the place slams open. Gavin sprints toward Ryan’s voice and through the door to the bedroom, which is unlocked. It’s a show of trust, and it’s hard to put into words how much it means. He closes it behind him and helps Ryan put a few pieces of furniture by the handle to barricade it shut.

When they’re done, he takes a look at Ryan. “Ouch,” he says sympathetically.

Ryan rolls his eyes. He’s bleeding from his hairline, and he has a quickly forming black eye. “You should see the other guy.”

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s get the bloody hell out of here and then talk about how brave and competent you are.”

“Aww,” simpers Ryan, but he’s still all business, stripping off his jacket methodically and gesturing for Gavin’s shirt. Gavin huffs but hands it over and lets Ryan replace it with a black hoodie, better to camouflage them as they make an escape. They both don beanies, courtesy of the walk-in closet, and Ryan scrubs at his face makeup until it’s unrecognizable. 

In the meantime, Gavin strips the bed and ties the sheets into an approximation of a rope. “Think it’ll hold?” he asks, holding it out dubiously. 

Ryan shrugs. “It’s not that far a drop if it doesn’t.”

Gavin doesn’t want to break his legs today, but whatever. It’s hard to distrust Ryan when he’s so matter of fact about things, and the fact is that he’s usually right about most things. “You first?”

More doors bang open and shut downstairs. Someone shouts, “Haywood, your ass is ours!”

Gavin snorts. “Go on, then.”

Ryan nods and begins rappelling out the window with an easy grace; it’s always jarring to see him moving so smoothly, but he can walk into rooms with nary a sound, and for all that it seems incongruous with his presence it at least makes sense intellectually.

Gavin peers out the window and sees Ryan safely on the grass, waving him down.

He gets halfway down the rope when it slides off of the bedpost he’d tied it to, and it takes everything in him not to yelp and reveal their presence as he begins to fall.

He lands, not on the ground, but in Ryan’s arms with a quiet, “Oof. Oh, hi.”

Ryan looks like he’s trying not to smile. “Hi. Come on, hide the sheets and let’s go.”

They dispose of the sheets in a bush and start to run, staying in the shadows and creeping around corners, so careful not to be seen. They’re good in a fight, yeah, but they’re vastly outnumbered by Gavin’s calculations. It’s only smart.

Ryan appears to be going for the _get as far away as possible as fast as possible_ approach. It’s admirable, but they don’t have a car.

Up ahead, a seedy looking bar advertises three dollar beer before midnight. Gavin pulls Ryan toward it.

“What are you doing?”

“We can’t run from them on foot, so we’re going to hide.”

“Less than five miles from the safehouse?”

Gavin huffs. “Yes. Are we the kinds of people that hide in bars?”

“ _No_ ,” insists Ryan. Gavin just looks at him until the tense line of his shoulders softens, just a little. “Okay, I get it. I’m not drinking, though.”

“Obviously,” says Gavin, and with a smooth look over his shoulder the two of them duck inside.

As soon as the adrenaline starts to wear off, it becomes evident that Ryan is determined to brood about whatever went wrong to lead to the chase. His expression is dark, eyes down. It was supposed to be a clean weapon buy. Apparently it wasn’t very clean.

“What’re you up to tomorrow?”

Ryan makes a face. “What?”

“Your plans,” pushes Gavin. “What are they?”

Ryan shrugs, swirling around the soda in his glass. “Try not to get murdered, either by the Sharks or by Geoff once he finds out I came back with no new rocket launchers.”

“Boring,” Gavin intones. “Let’s go to the beach.” 

It’s enough to get Ryan to finally look up. There are bags under his eyes and makeup smeared at his temples that Gavin wants to wipe away. “How do you do that? You never seem to care about anything. Even when it- really fucking matters, it’s like it’s nothing. I don’t understand you.”

“Of course I care.”

“Then why-”

Gavin cuts him off, careful not to let either of their volumes rise too high above the general din. “If I let myself dwell on everything that went wrong, or everything that could, I’d never be able to do what we do. I’d quit in a second.”

“Huh,” says Ryan. It’s quiet. He takes a sip of his drink before continuing. “The beach sounds nice.”

Gavin smiles. “Yeah.” A flash of movement catches his eye out the window, and he grabs a menu and ducks behind it. “Go to the bathroom,” he says.

Ryan doesn’t ask any questions, just slips out of the booth and toward the restroom in a matter of moments.

There’s some commotion, the Sharks causing a ruckus up front asking if anyone had seen a guy in a skull mask and a dude with gold sunglasses. Gavin snorts. None of that to be seen here. It appears as though the Sharks have been going door to door with little success, because they barely stick around to confirm Gavin and Ryan’s absence before storming out dramatically.

Gavin goes to find Ryan as soon as they’re gone. “We’re clear. They’re bloody morons.”

“No surprises there. We could call someone for a ride now if you want.”

Barbara drives a minivan because she thinks it’s hilarious, and she has a safehouse nearby they could stay in if they need. No one would suspect a thing if they convince her to come pick them up.

Still, something in Gavin wants to wait. “Would you mind sticking around until last call?”

He expects Ryan to put up at least a token protest, but the other man just nods, a sparkle in his eye that Gavin can’t quite place but doesn’t think he needs to. “Buy me another diet coke and it’s a deal.”

“You’ve got it.”

They slide back into the booth, get a few more drinks, and while the rest of the night away making imaginary plans to run away together to a beach house, somewhere sweet and remote, responsibilities here be damned.

(And if Gavin ends up getting pinned against the brick wall outside just moments after last call, being kissed within an inch of his life, then that’s neither here nor there.)

**Author's Note:**

> On tumblr @ teamokdynamite, and twitter @ poppyseedheart!


End file.
